Former UMass Dartmouth professor opening biotech lab in Fall River

Thursday

Apr 21, 2016 at 8:00 AM

Michael Gagne Herald News Staff Reporter @HNMikeGagne

FALL RIVER — Bal Ram Singh is hoping to use his decades of researching and experimenting with biotechnology to the benefit of area students, giving them the opportunity to work directly in a biotechnology laboratory — in effect enabling them to work and learn at the same time.

Singh, who formally retired from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as a biochemistry professor a year ago and who had previously directed the university’s former Center for Indic Studies and Botulinum Research Center, spoke to The Herald News during a visit this week to his new leased office and laboratory space at 427 Plymouth Ave.

Singh, who hails from India originally, maintains ties to the region, which he said he’s called home for more than 25 years, teaching and researching at an independent research laboratory in Dartmouth. That independent research laboratory is called the Institute of Advanced Sciences, and Singh serves as its president.

Singh currently oversees a staff of six researchers, whose work he said he is funded through a combination of grants and private donations, including a $200,000 grant specifically to develop teaching and educational programs for youth.

Singh said he believes in giving young people the opportunity through internships to get hands-on experiences in laboratory science and biotechnology, expressing hope that such experiences will enable students “to make a better life, get a better outlook.”

As for the kind of work that will take place in the lab, Singh described it as “mostly doing some experimental work, some analysis on proteins.”

Students would work on and learn about pharamaceutical concepts, like antibodies and medication design, Singh said.

Another area he outlined plans to research is herbal medicine, to study whether herbal remedies often used to treat maladies can be scientifically proven as beneficial — whether they make “biochemical sense,” as Singh described it.

Research at the Institute for Advanced Sciences will take place at different levels — from levels accessible to high school students to more advanced graduate level university research. Last year, two students, one from Bishop Connolly High School and another from Dartmouth, completed the institute’s internship. Singh plans to host two more this summer.

In January, a company Singh was a founding member of, called Anterios Inc., was acquired by the pharmaceutical giant Allergan for the sum $90 million.

According to a news release announcing the acquisition, Anterios had developed a technology that could deliver neurotoxins, such as botulinum, or Botox, in a local, targeted topical method through the skin without the use of needles.

That method was developed at the Botulinum Research Center, which was closed by UMass Dartmouth in 2013 but is now part also of the Institute of Advanced Sciences.

Singh said his received share from the purchase was $2.3 million, which he said he donated to a foundation called the Maryada Foundation, which he said “is dedicated to advancing the impartial and selfless understanding of the world through science and education.”

The institute’s Fall River site isn’t yet fully operational. But Singh said he hopes it will be completed by August. For now the site hosts seminars and conferences.

“When we are fully operational we might be offering some classes,” he said.

“I’ve been always thinking of ways to somehow pay back to the community,” Singh said. “My children grew up here. I want to do something for students, It’s another very important goal and mission for me, to try to do something locally."